


TAAKOQUEST: CYCLE 42

by anonymousAlchemist



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Eldritch, Gen, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, a choose your own adventure game featuring taako, i will be honest your choices change the genre, interactivity is lit, link inside the fic, this is exactly what it says on the tin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-03-26 16:43:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13861716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anonymousAlchemist/pseuds/anonymousAlchemist
Summary: Thank you for purchasing TAAKOQUEST: CYCLE 42, a Choose Your Own Adventure Game published by ZANY BULLSHIT GAMES, a subsidiary of the TAAKO(TM) CORPORATION!In TAAKOQUEST: CYCLE 42, you play as TAAKO during the STOLEN CENTURY The Starblaster is in ORBIT around a MYSTERIOUS PLANET! Your goal, along with your six companions, is to STOP THE HUNGER from assimilating this world.Can YOU find the LIGHT OF CREATION in time? Or will JOHN HUNGER consume this reality?Please press PLAY to continue





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i've put an absurd amount of work into creating this cyoa game. if you like zany adventures, emotions, and taako doing some bullshit: this is the game for you.

TAAKOQUEST: CYCLE 42 can be found at [taako.net](http://taako.net)

A transcript of a hypothetical first few pages (depending on your route) is here for your viewing pleasure. Chapter two includes meta + a game guide for those of you who are cowards. Just kidding. Love you. 

* * *

 

You wake up to the sound of your sister shouting at you.   
  
"Hey! Wake up, dipshit, you can't just laze around all day."   
  
Fuck yeah you can, Lulu. Just watch.   
  
"Mghnmm," you mumble, turning over in your bed.   
  
"Don't play dumb, 'ko," she says, shaking your shoulder. 

> Feign sleep

You give a loud fake snore, and let your limbs go limp. She shakes your shoulder more violently, then sighs. Oh, that's not a good sign.   
  
"Well, I didn't wanna do this, babe, but you leave me no choice."   
  
She stops shaking your shoulder. You hear your door slide closed again.   
  
Huh. Oh well. Blessed quiet. You drift back off.   
  
Your door slams open. Your ears prick upright. You wonder what's happen—  
  
"MAGNUS!"   
  
"Oh jesus fuck!" you screech, as Magnus picks you up, blankets and all, deftly avoiding your flailing. Your eyes snap open. He's beaming down at you. In the corner of the room, Lup is losing her shit.   
  
"You shoulda,  _ahahaha_ , you shoulda seen your  _face!_ "   
  
Magnus hoists you over his shoulder, and you are bodily removed from your bed and bedroom, your sister still laughing as you're carried down the hallway.   
  
The three of you enter the conference room.

>continue

Barry snorts, seeing you being carried by Magnus. Lucretia stifles a smile behind her book. You stick your tongue out at them. Davenport pointedly ignores the shenanigans.   
  
"Nice ride, kiddo," Merle says. You're deposited in a seat next to him. You still have your blanket, and you wrap it around your shoulders.  
  
"For the record, not my idea," you say. "The fuck is goin' on, anyway?"  
  
"Long story or short story?" Cap says.

> find the rest at [taako.net](taako.net)! 


	2. TIPS, TRICKS, AND LINER NOTES

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> just a handy dandy guide for the game.

**Liner notes:**

  * writing second person is really weird and is giving me flashbacks to homestuck. 
  * writing taako second person is extremely weird because taako is so very idiosyncratic a person that running through his thought processes and trying to make them relatable to the reader is a fun challenge 
  * i hammed it up a little in the prose here — this is more lurid than i usually go for anything (im a litfic writer baby i never explain a thing or do a description ever) and i think i dip into purple prose at points, but its evocative. so fuckit. 
  * writing a choose-your-own adventure is very difficult because i’m trying to create a narrative arc with a particular emotional resonance, while still keeping in mind that the slices of narrative that different people choose are going to be different. its very much like creating a chipotle station of a story. if that makes any sense. it was a pretty good learning experience and i hope it reads well. 
  * i wanted this to be fun, and then scary, and then finally, emotional. that’s the arc that this takes, emotionally, or at least the experience i try to bake into the piece. 
  * i dont remember why i chose magnus as the third member of the group and in retrospect i sort of wish i had chosen barry, but that would have been a very different game. 
  * magnus and taako are so much fun to write together. 
  * idk if you notice this, but across the three nightmares, you traverse the battlefield from before-attack, during-attack, and after-attack in linear time. 
  * lup, magnus, and taako are all very much afraid of variations on a single thing: failure. being alone. becoming people that they arent. this is because they’ve been fighting the same war for a very long time, and they care deeply about each other and the rest of the crew. 
  * lup’s nightmare scenario is this: she kills all her friends knowingly, dispassionately, wantingly, and then she joins the hunger. magnus’s is failure to protect his friends and being too scared to protect anyone else. taako’s is being alone with no alternative, and nothing to do but take a stand, a lack of choice. if we really dug into their psyches there would be more stuff but the eater-of-dreams 
  * the eater of dreams is a god and a natural phenomenon that assimilates most of the consciousnesses she comes into interaction with. 
  * the reason in the bad ends that nobody gets assimilated, is because the IPRE is aliens and the eater of dreams is unable to assimilate their mental footprints and chemical makeups. 
  * most people arent willing to go into anyone else’s nightmares, and it is very rare that anyone approaches the eater of dreams in a group. taako is actually kind of gamebreaking the system. 
  * fear isnt rational. nightmares aren’t realistic. these are the two things that informed the whole nightmare sequence. 
  * my excuse for any OOC is that this is a game being made post s&s and the characters inside are not the actual taz friends we know and love but mere representations.



* * *

 

**Tips &tricks:**

  * You get the most interesting narrative out of making mistakes, in my opinion. i’d say run through all the fucked up endings, get people killed, get dead’ed, see what happens. just playyyyy a little. 
  * Any time you have a PERSUASION CHECK you have a 50% chance of success and failure. 
  * If you get all the “good” endings you unlock a special epilogue when you go back to the “play” page. There are four good endings.



Item list+use: 

  * healing pods
    * This is probably the most useful item that you’ll have. Can be used to stave off death of your companions. 
  * clothing
    * flavortext
  * Lup’s lighter 
    * flavortext (might be later backdoored into having some combat use, but I didn’t have time to do that atm.) 
  * book 
    * flavortext + information about the world around you. 
  * map 
    * gives you information for decisionmaking 
  * Magnus (he’s an item I don’t know what you’re talking about) 
    * if you have magnus with you (aka he doesnt die) that’s the only way you get a good end, and you bypass the persuasion check where lup attacks you. 



Fighting tips: 

  * There’s no way to win the fight against the Eater of Dreams. 
  * The Midnight Millions can be most easily defeated by spamming Lup’s attack. Magnus dies if your health gets too low, even if you win. This has genuine serious effects for the rest of the narrative.  
  * Both Lup and Taako can be killed when you fight Lup. If you like angst, I highly encourage trying either of these options. 



**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading/playing! 
> 
> if you enjoyed the Experience(tm) please leave a comment or kudos <3


End file.
